Magical Conflict Resolution 101
by kyou fangirl
Summary: Troy and Abed have a Serious Talk. Magical friendship hats can't solve everything. Troy/Abed PLEASE REVIEW! :


**Magical Conflict Resolution 101**

**A/N YAY! More Troy/Abed! My current OTP! Anyway, I'm just in a good mood cause I'm on a ROLE all UPDATING and whatnot, even though I'm TOTALLY avoiding my chapter fics lol. Anyway, enjoy!**

"I'm worried about the hats," announced Abed from his bunk. It was the night after the Battle of Greendale, and school had been cancelled for the day so the participants of the fight and the custodial staff could rid the campus of feathers and put it back into some sort of presentable order. Troy and Abed had had feather fights the whole time, and had ended the day by swan-diving hand in hand into the giant pile of down that had been swept into the study room. It had been perfect. Too perfect.

Troy sighed. "Me too," he admitted.

"I feel like we know a dangerously small amount about their magic," mused Abed, removing his hat and looking at it pensively, before continuing, "though based on almost all instances of magic as a quick-fix in books and movies, we can probably assume they were a one time thing, effective in ending our conflict, but only in the short term." Abed stopped. He suddenly felt the magic hat dissolve away in his hands. It's magic couldn't protect them anymore.

There was an awkward silence.

"I think we need to talk."

Once it was said, it was agreed upon that they would go into the Dreamatorium™. They were both comfortable in there, and they wanted a more soothing site for their Serious Talk than their blanketfort bedroom (which had recently lost some of its appeal). So it was that the two found themselves sitting side by side in the imaginary confines of the DARSIT, emotionally preparing for a Serious Talk.

After a deep, audible breath, Troy was the first to speak. "That E-mail really hurt my feelings…"

"I already told you, you weren't supposed to see that," said Abed blankly.

"That doesn't make it any better," snapped Troy. "It actually makes it a bit worse."

Silence.

"I do have mental issues… don't I?"

Abed looked at Troy, and Troy looked away.

"I shouldn't have said that, man… I'm sorry. Of course you don't have—"

"Friends don't lie to each other," reminded Abed, his voice almost pleading.

Troy sighed again. "Yeah, ok. You _kind of_ have… mental issues… but not in a bad way. In a really, _really_ cool way. In a way that makes you _you_… And I think people who think that's bad or makes you weird are idiots… I was an idiot…" Troy was starting to tear up, but remembering what Abed had written in his E-mail, fought the tears extra hard.

"It's ok… and it's okay to cry a lot, too. It kind of makes up for all the emotions I don't show…"

Troy sniffed loudly.

"I went back and had the readers of that E-mail sworn to secrecy, by the way," continued Abed. "And I really am sorry…"

"Thank you… It's—" he sniffed "—it's okay for you to know those things but… but just you, okay?"

"Okay."

Abed twiddled his footsie-clad toes as Troy's head fell heavily against his shoulder, closing what little space there had been between them in the cramped time-machine. They breathed deeply and let themselves realize how much they'd missed this in the past few days. But it didn't last long. They had more to discuss.

"I don't want to be your Reggie anymore," said Troy finally, sounding confident and like he had composed himself, though Abed could still feel tears trickling onto his shoulder. That was what this was all about, really, and it wasn't about Inspector Spacetime. Abed had been controlling and Troy had been following him without developing his own character more. Though the Vice Dean's motives had been flawed, his reasoning had been fairly sound.

"That sounds fair," agreed Abed. He was nervous, though. "I… I realize that you've been a bit of a sidekick to me lately, which technically makes the most sense, character-trait-wise, but… but I realize that real life can't really work like that. It's not fair." Abed hung his head.

"I still want you as the inspector though," clarified Troy hastily. "And I still want to be an associate… if that's okay?"

Abed thought about it. It made sense. Troy was a follower, and they were still close friends, so it was to be expected that Troy wouldn't really ultimately want to leave him, but to be upgraded to a more intelligent and independent sidekick character.

"You could be James Haggard," suggested Abed thoughtfully. "He gets a nice mix of both humor and angst, as well as his own spin off where he gets to be the leader." Abed faltered. While all the associates left the Inspector eventually, James was the one who got to be separate from him for the majority of his canon. It was dangerously close to too much independence, and Abed was worried that the spin-off real-life parallel might manifest in Troy moving out, but when he glanced down at Troy and heard the sniffles and tears die down, he realized all that mattered was making Troy happy; compromising for him. It was the sort of thing people who didn't have mental issues had to do on TV all the time. It was what you did when you cared about someone.

"Yeah, okay… I could rock the Captain thing," agreed Troy finally, and Abed sighed in relief, despite his worries.

So the two started acting out James and the Inspector, finding it only slightly awkward without the addition of Lilly. They made up some parts and quoted some others. It was then, in James' goodbye scene from the series 1 finale, that Troy kissed Abed. It was not the first time they'd kissed, but it was the first time without a camera. Abed's character faltered for the first time. It had been a direct reference to the episode, but he hadn't expected Troy to do it.

"That was as James, right?" he asked. He mentally slapped himself. What a dumb question.

"Yeah, totally," said Troy, a little breathless, breaking character as well. There was a silence where Troy was still smiling from the scene and Abed had a little crease between his eyebrows from whatever he was thinking. Then Troy—_as Troy—_leant in and kissed him again.

"That one was, um, as me," he said nervously, after breaking it. Abed hadn't responded like he had in character. Troy panicked. "What's wrong?"

"It's just…" said Abed, like he didn't really understand what he was feeling, "the first time I've ever been kissed… as me…"

Troy's breath caught in his throat and he suddenly had this overwhelming and contradictory rush of emotions, torn between hating people for their lack of understanding of Abed, and being happy to have him all to himself. Settling, for now, on the latter, Troy just smiled fondly, and leant in again. This kiss was slower and gentler, and Abed relaxed into it.

"I…" began Abed, truly at a loss for what to say. "I think you should be Brooke Tunes instead," he finished, looking Troy in the eyes. Troy grinned. "She's pretty badass, and independent of the Inspector, and just about as smart, and they get to spend a lot of time together, usually only for the coolest adventures."

"Awesome," said Troy, kissing Abed again.

"Cool. Cool cool cool." And Abed smiled.

**A/N So that's that. Hope you liked it. I know it was a little weird, all starting in one place and ending all differently and whatnot, but yeah. Hope you enjoyed! PLEASE review! :D**


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